Who Said That?

Florida's quote of the day

"I don't think people want to come to this county as a tourist or a beach person and see people in chains."

-- Larry Lawton, a former convict turned life coach

They clomp down the road in black boots, marching with chains locked around their ankles.

The past few weeks, a small band of convicted inmates from Brevard County Jail has been working on a chain gang. First-year Sheriff Wayne Ivey says he launched the project as a sort of living-and-breathing public service announcement, choosing black-and-white striped costumes harkening to a bygone era and bold, bright signage aimed at making the chain gang as visible as possible.

“Not a new concept, but certainly an effective one,” Ivey said.

Not everyone agrees. Civil rights activists and others have doubts about whether shackled inmates on county roadsides is the appropriate way to get across an anti-crime message and if the concept itself is outdated or even unconstitutional.

Nobody crashed in Monday’s first hours of the new “wrong way” interchange in Miami. But that’s because Miami cops guided confused drivers in the manner of a first-grade teacher keeping wayward students in line on the first day of school.